English subtitles for clip: File:Yochai Benkler - On Autonomy, Control and Cultural Experience.ogv

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Interview with [[w:Yochai Benkler|Yochai Benkler]]

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When I say user autonomy, what I'm talking about,

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is at the simplest level the ability 
of people to do more for themselves,

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by themselves, 
without having to ask anyone's permission

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and without having to submit to anyone's

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control over what it is they are doing. 

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What happened in the [[w:Industrial_information_economy|industrial 
information and cultural economy]]

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was that people shifted from being 
relatively free to use a limited range

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of materials that they had in social settings 
that were open for conversation.

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Family friends, 
relatively small localities for the majority of people.

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To an industrial model of cultural production

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where the materials were produced by 

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some set of commercial [[w:Producer|professional producers]], 
who then control the experience 

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and located individuals at the passive 
receiving end of the cultural conversation

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so that efforts to take these materials and remake them, 

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or efforts to participate as a cultural speaker,

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by and large required permission.

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What we're seeing now is that 
through a combination of technology,

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both digital processing and computation technology 
and networking technology,

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people can take more of their cultural environment, 

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more of the information environment, 
make it their own,

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use it as found materials 
to put together their own expressions,

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do their own research, 
create their own communications, 

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create their own communities, 
when they need collaboration with others.

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Rather than relying on a 
limited set of existing institutions.

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Or on a set of materials 
that they are [[w:Copyright|not allowed to use]]

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without going and asking 
"please may I use this?

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Please may I create?"

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What happens when people can do more for and 

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by themselves is that the set of actors;

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primarily companies, 
and in some places governments

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that control the experience - 
those whose permission was required, 

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are resisting this transistion because 

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control is a good thing to get 
if you can get it. 

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Or at least control is a good thing to have 
if you can get it.

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And what we're seeing today 
is a series of different kinds of campaigns,

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Some of them quite self conscious,

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I think for example, 
[[w:Hollywood|Hollywood's]] campaign to expand

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technological constraint
on use of cultural materials

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[[w:Digital rights management|digital rights management]], [[w:Trusted_computing|trusted systems]],

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is a self conscious campaign.

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Some of it much less conscious 
much more based on anxieties,

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and speaking out anxieties. 
So for example 

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when you hear the persistent concerns 
over Internet security,

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and what will happen if people crack your system

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when you hear the constant concerns about quality

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and where will good quality come from?

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and the error rate in [[w:wikipedia|wikipedia]], 
these are all much more subconscious expressions

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of a fear that ends up being used as justification,

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for embracing the control system 
that is being displaced

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because of the technological and social actions,

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because of the technological characteristics 
and the social practices,  

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that are being adopted in widespread 
cooperative networked practices. 

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So we're seeing sometimes legal moves to change,

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and require legal control where 
practically it's no longer necessary. 

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Sometimes we see... I wouldn't call them propaganda,

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but I'd call them public debate and public enactment 

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of anxiety, in order to increase the perceived importance,

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of the traditional controllers. 
The most important place where you see this is,

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teachers tell students not to use Wikipedia.

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Because that use shakes up the sense that I'm a teacher,

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I know exactly what the set of materials are 
that I have approved

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and are capable of being approved.

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I am used to seeing Kids, 
appealing to authority

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rather that cross referencing multiple resources.

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I don't want to teach them 
that they should see this as a source,

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But not as a source of authority, a source of insight,

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a potential move in a research that's always sceptical.  

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One of the things that has to happen 
in the context of the radically decentralised system

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Is that we all have to become [[w:Sceptical|sceptical]] readers, 
all the time.

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Which is a fundamental change from 
the traditional cultural system 

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Where we would talk. 
'How do I know if it's true? Well you've said it.'

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Where did they publish it? 
And looking for indicia of authority

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that will tell me this is authority.

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Instead I have to begin to develop new capabilities 

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of looking at five sources, 
assigning them different levels of weight

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and saying I have reasonable confidence 
that the correct answer is

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x rather than y without really assigning 
full authority to any single site.

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So that's another locus of control trying to,

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get people to continue to hang on 
to to this sense that you need

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the expert authority, 
you need the person whose is in charge,

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to tell you what is good and what is not good. 
what is high quality, what is low quality.

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What is reliable information, 
what is not reliable information.

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And that's another domain 
where we see the controllers,

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in this case I think less strategically,

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than in the context of the way that for example, 
Hollywood backs digital rights management. 

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I think it's a cousin in terms of self preservation.

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But I think it's also a public enactment 
of deeply held beliefs

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about why it is, that the particular people, 
that play a particular role

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of authoritative speakers, 
in the older system

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continue to believe in the values 
that made them authoritative, 

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and made their authority important.  
And so that's much more cultural resistance,

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than it is practical, 
legal or technical design resistance.

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But  were seeing resistance from 
different kind of actors who played the role, 

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of controllers in the older models, 
trying to preserve 

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their relatively privileged position as controllers,

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through different systems of constraint